Prosecutors Seek 15-Year Sentence for Menendez’s Bribery Case.
Federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York have proposed a minimum sentence of 15 years for Robert Menendez, the former senator from New Jersey, who was found guilty of exchanging his political influence for bribes. The U.S. attorney’s office is also seeking a lengthy prison term for Mr. Menendez’s co-defendants, Wael Hana and Fred Daibes. The government has requested that Judge Sidney H. Stein impose a sentence of no less than 10 years for Mr. Hana and nine years for Mr. Daibes. In a memorandum submitted late Thursday to the Federal District Court in Manhattan, the prosecutors emphasized the “rare gravity” of the offenses committed.
“The defendants’ crimes amount to an extraordinary attempt, at the highest levels of the legislative branch, to corrupt the nation’s core sovereign powers over foreign relations and law enforcement,” they wrote.
The three individuals are set to receive their sentences on January 29. In the previous week, the attorneys for Mr. Menendez, Avi Weitzman and Adam Fee, characterized a reduced recommendation from the court's probation office—12 years—as tantamount to a death sentence. They urged Judge Stein to contemplate a significantly shorter prison term combined with community service.
The prosecutors said the substantial sentences, combined with significant financial penalties would “provide just punishment for this extraordinary abuse of power and betrayal of the public trust, and to deter others from ever engaging in similar conduct.”
“Menendez’s conduct may be the most serious for which a U.S. senator has been convicted in the history of the Republic,” the prosecutors told the judge. “Very few senators have even been convicted of any criminal offense, and of those, most of the senators engaging in bribery accepted amounts that are a fraction of what Menendez reaped, even adjusting for inflation.”
Mr. Menendez, a former influential Democrat who previously chaired the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was found guilty of accepting substantial sums of money, gold bars, and a Mercedes-Benz in return for his assistance to allies seeking political favors. He was convicted of attempting to interfere in both state and federal criminal cases and of serving as an agent for a foreign government as part of a prolonged bribery scheme involving officials from Egypt and Qatar.
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In a statement shared on social media on Friday evening, Mr. Menendez rejected the prosecutors' assertion that he acted on behalf of the Egyptian government. The statement emphasized, “Senator Menendez has historically been one of the most outspoken critics of the US Government regarding Egypt and its human rights practices, as well as of Egyptian President Al Sisi, the very individual whom they erroneously accused of bribing Senator Menendez.”
A lawyer for Mr. Hana, Lawrence S. Lustberg, called the 10-year recommended sentence for his client excessive and said it was “inhumane and unjust.”
Mr. Daibes’s lawyer, César de Castro, said the prosecutors’ recommendation that Mr. Daibes, 67, serve nine years in prison was “completely out of line” with penalties imposed for other people convicted of similar conduct. He has argued that a sentence of two years would be appropriate.
The three men were found guilty in July of all charges brought against them following a two-month trial held in Manhattan. Nadine Menendez, the wife of Mr. Menendez, is alleged to have served as an intermediary, facilitating the exchange of messages and bribes between the three men and Egyptian officials who were advocating for increased military assistance at that time. Her trial has been postponed to accommodate her treatment for breast cancer and is set to commence one week after her husband's sentencing. Prior to the sentencing of the men, Judge Stein must still make a decision regarding their motions for a new trial, which arise from a contention over jurors' access to specific evidence. In November, prosecutors revealed that a computer provided to jurors for the review of hundreds of texts and emails presented as evidence contained a limited number of messages that had not been fully redacted.
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“In light of this serious breach, a new trial is unavoidable, despite all of the hard work and resources that went into the first one,” Mr. Weitzman and Mr. Fee argued in a court filing. “Without doubting that the error was unintentional, the responsibility for it lies exclusively with the government, and the government must accept its consequences.”
In his remarks on Friday evening, Mr. Menendez asserted that the sentence proposed by the prosecutors constitutes a corrupt and spiteful effort to obscure the misconduct of the Federal Prosecutors in his case, particularly regarding their acknowledged provision of inadmissible evidence to the Jury, which had been prohibited by the Judge. Prosecutors have emphasized that the jury's decision was both prompt and emphatic, opposing the defense's requests for a retrial. On Friday, Mr. Lustberg, the attorney for Mr. Hana, stated in an email that no sentence should be imposed. “until the merits of this unfair conviction are fully aired and decided on appeal.”
“This includes,” he added, “the fact that evidence that was not admitted at trial was provided to the jury.”
Mr. de Castro, the legal representative for Mr. Daibes, expressed his satisfaction that the prosecutors acknowledged in their recommendations that his client was the "least culpable" and that his acts of generosity, selflessness, and commitment to the Edgewater, N.J., community merit recognition and commendation.
The sentencing for Robert Menendez and his co-defendants is set for January 29. Prosecutors are pushing for lengthy prison terms, citing the severity of their crimes. While the defense argues for reduced sentences, the case underscores the profound consequences of corruption within U.S. politics and governance.
